Pic encouraged by gap to Marussia

Charles Pic says he is encouraged by the gap to rivals Marussia after qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Pic will start the race from nineteenth place and was seven tenths of a second faster than Marussia's Jules Bianchi.

"We waited for the first batch of cars to head out and then went for the first run on a new set of supersofts," he said.

"The balance still wasn’t right, now the car had gone back to understeer but in the end the first run was ok and with the way the car was behaving I probably couldn’t have found too much more in qualifying."

"The good thing is that we have around seven tenths advantage over the Marussias and that’s good for us in the race as it means we can look at the fight ahead, not back. I’m looking forward to tomorrow as it’ll definitely be exciting and with the number of safety cars there’s been here over the years anything could happen."

The Dutchman was two tenths of a second down on Pic but was fortunate to continue unscathed after swiping the wall on the exit of turn 19.

"I had a bit of traffic so I knew there was more time to come," Van der Garde said of his first run.

"On my second run I was pushing hard and just touched the wall which cost me a little bit of time, but overall I guess where we finished is ok. The main thing for the team is the gap we have to the cars behind so now it’s all about the race, making sure we avoid any problems and be there to take advantage of anything that comes our way."